Parallel Plate Electrochemical Reactor Model

A model is presented for a parallel plate electrochemical reactor which has electrodes that are the same size and are close together. That is,the distance between the electrodes (S) is much smaller than the length (L) or width (W) of the electrodes. Consideration of the material balance quations in light of this small aspect ratio (S/L) condition leads to predictions of de-rived quantities of interest (e.g., current efficiency) that depend on the product of the aspect ratio and the Peclet number, where Pe = 2VavgS/DR. Predictions of such derived quantities are made for electrolysis of an aqueous, hydrochloric acid solution containing copper in a cell with no separator. The design of a paral le l plate electrochemical reactor (see Fig. 1) often requires predict ing such quantities as the current and energy efficiency for mult iple elec-trode reactions, the conversion per pass of a reactant or product, and the selectivity of a desired product. For example, in a cell with no separator, the electrode reactions for electrowinning of copper from a chlorid